After coming across this[0] thread yesterday I'm considering upgrading my RAM on my Ryzen 9 3900X workstation to ECC to protect myself from data integrity issues in the future.
Would you suggest this route? It seems to me that there's little reason to upgrade if there have been no issues in the past.
What have your experiences been with running your workstations with ECC ram? Is it worth the additional cost?
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34470900
One of the benefits of ECC RAM is the ability to detect single and double-bit memory errors. In the absence of that capability, how would you know if you have a problem with your RAM?
> What have your experiences been with running your workstations with ECC ram.
For AMD desktop processors, there is a little more effort involved in building an ECC-capable system, because ECC is a feature provided by the motherboard maker, rather than a feature guaranteed to be present as part of AMD's platform. As such, you need to verify that your motherboard actually supports it.
Also, ECC memory largely lacks memory auto-overclocking features like XMP, EXPO, or whatever AMD called it in the past. As such, the memory will default to conservative bandwidth and latency settings (rather than the faster settings typically offered on enthusiast RAM), and it will be on you to overclock it if you wish to do so.
(On the positive side, ECC memory also largely lacks the "heat spreaders" and other plastic/RGB bits found on enthusiast memory, which means it's more likely to fit properly underneath a tower-style CPU air cooler.)
Lastly, unbuffered ECC can be somewhat difficult to find at typical consumer electronics retailers, and you'll likely have better luck getting it from vendors that specialize in server memory.